Fitting AdWords into Your Acquisition Strategy
The potential that AdWords has as an acquisition model should be determined by your pre-existing business model. For instance, any acquisition channel can be approached in one of three general ways: (1) as a top priority, (2) as a necessary evil, or (3) as a robust component to a comprehensive acquisition strategy. In leveraging AdWords then it’s important you do so in the context of your greater acquisition strategy.
AdWords as a Top Priority
If your business model demands a constant and high volume of new customers, then managing your AdWords will require a comprehensive solution. That solution, in turn, should feature a resource (PPC manager, 3rd party agency, etc.) that is experienced with PPC and very knowledgeable about your industry. In addition to monitoring campaign performance, your chosen resource should be providing in-depth analytics on conversions so that your campaigns can be optimized on an ongoing basis.
AdWords as a Necessary Evil
Conversely, if AdWords is a channel that you plan to leverage just because your competition is doing so, you should consider a solution that can maximize returns on your limited investment in PPC. Here, you will want a resource that can quickly identify the most appropriate keyword sets according to (1) your budget, (2) your niche, and (3) your main competition. In this case, you require an AdWords solution that is intimately familiar with your product and experienced with PPC in general.
AdWords as Only Part of the Picture
Finally, if PPC is just one component to an already comprehensive online acquisition strategy, then you should consider how to both leverage AdWords as a standalone channel, and use it to shore-up your other channels. For instance, you may want to weigh the pros and cons of allowing your affiliates to leverage the channel as well.
Although there is an opportunity here to encourage your affiliates to leverage PPC in doing so you will also need to offer your affiliates additional support and tools so that they can produce results, and not just clicks. Affiliates will require tools and support to optimize their own PPC campaigns.
For example, Google provides excellent analytics on click-through-rates, but it cannot help your affiliates determine the value of each keyword they bid on. If you’re going to encourage your affiliates to use PPC then your affiliate marketing platform should be able to track referrals according to keywords. After all, optimizing a PPC campaign requires that you have detailed reports on all you KPIs. These include referred customers, average transaction, and the long-term revenues generated by each AdWords ad.
Maximizing Your Return on Clicks
Optimizing your PPC strategy requires that you consider how PPC will relate to and affect your overall acquisition strategy. After all, PPC is just one of several acquisitions channels, and should complement your other acquisition efforts.
As with any powerful acquisition channel, PPC has the potential to generate either great returns or great losses. Making sure that your Adwords campaigns are managed with the right experience and supported by tracking software that can collect ongoing intelligence on campaign performance, then, are key components to PPC success.
